Morning Brief: Trying to change the channel

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After all, even though there will be a pause in daily interrogation sessions in the Chamber, the justice committee is expected to hold at least one meeting this week to hear from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s longtime friend and former principal secretary Gerald Butts. More on what we’re watching from Kady O’Malley.

Marieke Walsh/iPolitics

Meanwhile, David Lametti, who was handed the reins as justice minister when Jody Wilson-Raybould was shuffled out of the portfolio, dug himself a bit of a hole yesterday. In an interview with The West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson, he wouldn’t say whether he thinks it’s appropriate for a government to interfere in a criminal prosecution for political reasons.

She asked: “If someone approached you and said an election is at stake, would that be a persuasive argument to you?” His response? It “depends on the context.” As for whether the contact between Wilson-Raybould and key figures in the Trudeau government on SNC-Lavalin was appropriate or not, he couldn’t say because he doesn’t know the details. More from Global News on that one.

Lametti also said an attorney general’s decision can be changed if new information appears: “You do have an ongoing obligation as attorney general in terms of your relationship to prosecutions and the prosecution service to be open to new facts,” he said. “I can’t speak to the actual facts [of the SNC-Lavalin affair] but I know that in principle, an attorney general has to remain open so, in that sense, no decision is ever final.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford laughs with members of his cabinet, including Peter Bethlenfalvy, president of the Treasury Board, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli and Infrastructure Minister Monte McNaughton, during a photo op with bank economists at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Aug. 30, 2018. (Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star)

iPolitics has learned that the government’s new chair of the internal corporate audit committee, Charles-Antoine St-Jean is earning $2,500 per day, compared to the $1,500 per day earned by Kevin Costante, who served in the role under the former Liberal government, according to Treasury Board spokesperson Beata Carissa. Marieke Walsh has the full story.

Between Michael Cohen‘s testimony before Congress and a failed summit with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, last week was a tumultuous one — even for President Donald Trump. Unfortunately for him, there are no signs that’s about to change. Congress is poised to block his declaration of a national emergency, paving the way for the first veto showdown with his White House. That deal was sealed over the weekend when Sen. Rand Paul became the fourth Republican senator to say he’d vote against the move — done to fund Trump’s border wall. As the Hill reports, Paul said he couldn’t support giving a president “extra-constitutional powers.”

If you thought the president had made freewheeling and rambling speeches already, they had nothing on the doozy that dragged on for two hours at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend. The Atlantic has compiled this list of the seven most bewildering moments.